Case Review – WTA Finals 2019 (1/2) – Lighting & Rigging
By MYANG · 08 September 2020
The "Shiseido · Shenzhen WTA Finals" is the highest-level women's tennis event in the world. Therefore, the requirements for lighting systems and lighting are very high.
Dual Network Protocol
In this finals, the entire lighting system adopts the dual network protocol with MA-NET as the main and ARTNET as the supplement. The backbone network is formed by 5 Cisco Gigabit network switches connected in a ring. The MA-NET network protocol is used to control the lamps in the field and there are three NPU network processing units to help the console perform data calculation and transmission. In order to ensure the real-time and effective data transmission, the gigabit network switches on the backbone are connected by optical fibers. In addition, in order to ensure the normal operation of lamps in specific positions, we have added 6 network decoders to transmit signals to lamps in tricky positions. Between the gigabit network switch and the network decoder, the data transmission before the MA2 console and the gigabit network switch are professional Category 6 network cables to ensure the speed and stability of data transmission.
Rigging Challenges
The difficulties encountered in the construction and maintenance of on-site lighting: a total of more than 200 electric hoists and 1,000 meters of light TRUSS beams need to be hoisted in the entire stadium. First of all, the difficulty we encountered is the position of the lower point of the TRUSS beam. The conventional points of the infield can basically meet the design requirements, but the point where the auditorium pulls the back is a point that has never been lowered since the venue was built — the construction is difficult and the risk is extremely high. But in the end, our team overcame all kinds of difficulties and managed to solve the problem of pulling the auditorium to the back, and then the problem of replacing lamps in the maintenance phase.
Illuminance & Color Reproduction
In order to ensure that the illuminance and color reproduction of the lamps meet the design standards of the foreign teams, we carried out repeated on-site testing and adjustment of the fixtures. The lighting layout was fine-tuned so that both the broadcast cameras and the live audience would see accurate, evenly distributed light across the court and performance areas.
The on-site lighting equipment finally exceeded the expectations of the German consultant team and was highly recognized.
